Cold Days
by nejiandtenten
Summary: Konoha has been getting colder lately, and absences from Gai have allowed Neji and Tenten to spend a little bit more quality time together. Wait and see! Neji x Tenten, so NejiTen is certain! Lee funnyness!
1. Where's Gai?

Author's Note: Helloooooo Readers! If you're familiar with this fic, you'll know that it has a total of six chapters so far. Also, you'll have noticed that it's as if a retarded monkey wrote it. yes, this is a project I started over two and a half years ago (coincidentally, the same as the Naruto time-skip) and due to laziness and continual lack of interest, I have not updated in forever. However, I have sparked once again, and instead of making another chapter, I have completely re-wrote _Cold Days_. I think those of you who have read it before will find a dramatic improvement! With that, I don't own Naruto, and now, without further ado...

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Cold Days

It was a cold summer day in the Village Hidden Within the Leaves. Lee, Tenten, and Neji were all left in the usual training field and completely alone, the loud exuberant jabbering of their sensei was nowhere to be heard. A quick burst of wind blew by and nipped at their bones. Rock Lee, at first, practiced some of his taijutsu, while Neji and Tenten sat and watched him blankly, because they felt no real reason to begin training until they were told to. Plus, it was one of the moments where they were able to be with each other, without having obligations of a sort. It became unbearable to Lee. Things were not right and if things were not right, Lee was not right. And Lee was never right.

"WHERE IS GAI-SENSEI? HE IS LATE!" The boy with the horrible fashion taste said, his two teammates flinching from the very loud shouting. It appeared that the bowl-headed boy truly had no common sense. Obviously, Gai hadn't shown up yet, and so he's late. And Gai-sensei is never late. Always on-time.

"Lee," said the only female in the group. "There's no reason to shout. We're standing right next to you."

"I KNOW!" He clenched a fist as the girl sighed, the Hyuuga stayed completely emotionless.

"You really are an idiot."

"What did you say Neji?"

"...You're an idiot..."

"Okay, that's it!" Lee gazed at him with big fat beady black eyes. "I WILL DEFEAT YOU NOW, OR DO TWO-HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO PUSHUPS WITH CHOUJI ON MY BACK!" The boy had made the other two practically def, and now, suddenly, the boy was looking very serious. Honestly, Lee was quite possibly one of the most obnoxious Genins in the village.

All three were silent, and it seemed that if a pin dropped, it would be as loud as a nuclear bomb exploding in your ear. That's loud, if you've never had a nuclear bomb go off in your ear you'd know. The silence was long. Icy. Like a very cold ice cube that is so icy that even ice would say that ice is icy.

"Let's go Neji..." croaked Lee as he got in his "I'm-gonna-kick-your-ass-if-it-kills-me" pose and split the silence in half, just as he intended to do with Neji.

Again, all were silent. The challenger stood there, completely focused, with his stance solid as rock. A gust of ice-nip wind flew by and tossed his hair, making it very overly dramatic.

Dead silence.

The young woman with both chocolate hair, and eyes was the next to speak. She now obliterated the silence. However, her voice seemed to tame it, while Lee's did the opposite. And provoked it.

"Lee," she said with a sigh. "Let's try to go today without rushing you self to the hospital...You've suffered enough internal damage from Neji as it is, your going to regret doing this so much any day now..."

"BUT I NEED TO BEAT HIM!"

Neji smiled—or rather, smirked at him. He simply stood his ground, the trees overhead seemed to sway along with his hair as it was blown.

"Don't try, Lee. Not today anyway," said Tenten

A very dark silence followed. Neji looking at Lee with his infamous death glare as Tenten stepped off to the side. Lee hadn't move from his stance. The only thing to move around him, was his hideous hair and outfit.

Again to break the silence, Tenten.

"Please...Can't we just find Gai-sensei?" She looked disturbed. Looking at her teammates with a wide-eyed, "why me?" look, and getting between the two, she was able to get Lee to back down. Then Neji. The great savior Tenten had just stopped another duel between the two, though she very well knew that there would be many more.

"Fine," Lee said. Though obnoxious, Lee was a smart and good person. Occasionally anyway.

"Good." She said it with I giant sigh of relief. The three of them continued walking around the forest, not necessarily looking for Gai, but wasting time in order for Gai to get his butt to the training field. They would definitely hear his loud voice screaming their names when he got there, so now they just need to wait. Wait, and make sure nobody gets the crap beat out of them. It should be noted that Gai usually trains with Lee, and Tenten with Neji. It was like that nearly every day. But Gai made it his "duty" to tell the three of them to get off to it. It had to be approved of before it even started.

They walked for awhile, but nothing. It was so quiet...except for Lee talking with the squirrels every time one passed by. Another freezing cold burst of wind came across them, nipping away at their flesh. The brutal temperature seemed to be dropping all the time; or at least it seemed that way. But it wasn't the temperature itself, it was the wind that seemed so freezing. Each little breeze, no matter how small, was like having icy water being poured on you when you least expect it.

"I'm so cold. Why is it this cold in the middle of summer?" Tenten asked as she hugged herself for warmth. Her bare shoulders were freezing, and she rubbed them just to try and get some kind of warmth. ANY kind of warmth.

"I don't know Tenten," Lee, surprisingly soft (for him, of course) announced.

"What I want to know is where Gai is..." A good comment from the light-eyed genius. He walked with an upright posture, his arms crossed as he went along. Though he was cold, he was the least to show it, as his face was stern and filled with thoughts. Tenten began to say something, only to be cut off by a shouting Lee.

"I DON'T KNOW WHERE GAI-SENSEI IS!" Obvious of course, but that was Lee. Always pointing out the obvious, and truly unpredictable. Tenten then had her turn to speak, looking annoyed from the interruption from her comrade.

"He better get here quick...I hate waiting..."

Neji stayed quiet. Of course he would, as he's not the talkative type. The genius just continued keeping pace with the others, staring straight ahead, thinking his Neji-ish thoughts. He didn't notice Tenten looking at him out of the corner of her eye…

Elsewhere

Tsunade hit her head with her hand. She was so sick and fed up with this. Why Gai had to make this all a big deal and bring out her old board, she didn't know. And she didn't want to know. She just wanted them out, and it was plain as hell obvious too. Kakashi and Gai were in her office, playing darts. To say that they both sucked would be an understatement. Throw after throw after throw completely missed the target, and a few nearly killed a frightened Shizune. It was amazing to see how the two of them could easily hit the center of the board with a kunai or shuriken, but with a simple playing dart the closest they got was two feet to the center.

"Hey you two! You both have Genins to train; you can't be here playing! Idiots!" Tsunade put on her mad face, wailing with terrific force at them both. The room rumbled, as Kakashi hurled a dart at the target. The dart missed the board completely and hit the wall about three feet above where the target was hanging. Tsunade looked pissed. Super really ultra pissed.

"I MUST BEAT MY ETERNAL RIVAL AT DARTS!" Gai threw a dart, but the course of the projectile went far left and hit the wall. Kakashi simply stood there, not reading his book because he was really trying. That's how bad the two of them were.

"Kakashi, you're usually late like this, but Gai? What will Lee think?" They continued to ignore her as they created hole after hole in the wall. There must have been over a thousand at the moment. And now there were a thousand and one.

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BAM! A revamped, completely edited Chapter one of Cold Days! Now maybe it won't look like a kindergartner wrote it! R&R! Thanks for reading! 

-Nejiandtenten


	2. Not Much Training

Author's Note: Yep! You guessed it! CHAPTER TWO! Well, technically one, cause the last was prelude, but I just call it chapter two anyway. So I don't have much to say. Um. Oh yeah! I don't own Naruto. If I did, I'd give Tenten more screen time. P Enjoy! XD

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It was summer, and the coldest summer Tenten had ever been through. The icy wind made her bones ache and her body constantly shivering. She was just happy that it was time to train and get her blood flowing. However, this morning was NOT the best one she's had. The girl's mother was taking care of the weapon shop, while her dad took the day off. When things were going slow, they would trade positions every now and then. It was kind of a system her parents had. It seemed that her father somehow woke up earlier than her, ate HER breakfast, took HER hot water from the shower, and managed to accidentally toss her kunai pouch on the ground and covered it with paper. She assumed her father would never do such things on purpose...but you never know.

It truly was a miracle that she made it out of the house at all even though she was extremely late. As she ran, she wondered why everyone and everything had been late lately. She hurried threw the town, threw the forest, and found herself in the place that Gai's team usually trained. Tenten found herself questioning whether it was really all that important to rush. For all she knew, Gai wouldn't even be there today either. _Just like yesterday. Gai-sensei never showed up. We didn't really do anything…_

The chocolate-eyed kunoichi took a glance around and noticed she was completely alone on the field. The silence was eerie. She might have preferred Gai and Lee jabbering about the 'Flames of Youth' than having to stand alone in a quiet forest lot.

_No way on earth,_ she thought.

It didn't take her a second thought to prefer the silence over them.

Glancing to the left, she saw a bird take off of a tree in a swift flutter. The girl's head tilted upwards as she watched the beautiful chestnut colored bird fly up and away. It flew farther and farther away, and she had her eyes fixted upon it until it was out of her view, and it blended into the sky. The sight seemed to have her transfixed, as simple as it was, and she felt herself thinking about a good number of things. Less than a half a second later and she snapped back into reality.

"Nice try Neji." The kunoichi twirled, her small form rippling through in a fluid motion while she actually _caught_ the single kunai by the handle, and flung it back. It was thrown from behind her, with the perfect intention to kill—or at least severely wound.

"Just happy to see you're on guard," he said with a neutral tone as he revealed himself, the Hyuuga stepping out of the shrubbery from which he seemed to appear.

"Aren't I always?" She asked twirling the kunai and then slipping it in her pouch.

"No."

"No?"

They stood firm, staring each other in the eyes. Bonding, and connecting in a way which is difficult to put into words. It was like they were in twine with each other in this silence. So much silence. But this was a comfortable silence. Not at all plagued with cold or awkwardness, and they had no chance of being interrupted by the likes of Lee. "So...where's Lee and Gai-sensei?" She asked, muttering to herself how irresponsible the two were. Silence. This comfortable silence… it didn't last long. The kunoichi wasn't thinking when she spoke next.

"So… where's Lee?"

"Gai never showed up. Lee took off awhile ago to look for him," a short and rather simple answer from Neji.

He looked up, staring at the same bird that she had watched only awhile ago. She was certain it was the same bird anyway. _Strange that it would take off and come back._ Her keen interest with the bird, seemed to lure Neji into watching it with her. After it flew away once more, she took a quick glance at Neji, who was still staring at the sky. With nothing really to do, except wait until Neji popped out of his trance, she fumbled through her pack and realized she forgot nearly half her weapons at her house. The girl had all the right in the world to release a big sigh, and she slumped over.

_I didn't feel like doing any work anyway._

"Well Neji," she looked at him again, and he looked at her as well. "Maybe we should train now...since apparently no one is coming to assist us. _Not that it would matter, since I'm the only one he is ever willing to train with._

"Fine. Should I won't hold back," he answered.

"You might want to. I left nearly all of my artillery at home." She mentally kicked herself. Such a stupid thing to say. Before Neji even said anything, she knew she was going to get scolded for something about excuses.

"I don't want excuses," he said coolly. "I want results."

Neji was about to get in a stance, when there was a brushing sound against in a bush about twenty meters to the left. Tenten automatically drew a shuriken. It was an easy hit for her skills. However, Neji held up a hand. She was slightly puzzled, but realized that she would not want to kill anyone that might have been trying to sneak up on them. So, she picked up a medium sized rock instead. The girl was a pro at the art, and with a flick of the wrist and a small arm movement, she hurled it with great accuracy, smashing something in the bush that gave a loud screech. Neji was on it in a second. He stopped though, seemingly shocked.

"Neji? Who is it?" She was quite curious. Maybe some academy brat trying to act tough, sneaking up on trained shinobi like that one kid does for Naruto. She herself was shocked when she saw what he lifted up.

"Lee's not going to like this, Tenten," he smirked. "You shouldn't have thrown that rock."

"And how is this MY fault?"

"I told you not to." She just noticed his Byakugan was on. _Oh crap..._

"Now what are you going to tell Lee?" He then turned his blood limit off.

"I don't know..." The Hyuuga grinned a normal, average smile. And that was rare. She realized, for the first time since they met at the academy, that only when he was alone with her, did he smile. Only when he was alone with her, did he talk a little more freely. And only with her, did he train. NOT Gai, NOT Lee (the occasional ass-whip she supposed) not anyone else, but her. He seemed to rely on her, and when she thought even more about it about it…

She relied on him.

"Tenten?" The Hyuuga looked at her oddly, trying to get her attention.

"Huh? Oh, sorry." He smirked again. _Oh crap, I must have zoned out._ She snapped back to the task at hand. "Is it...dead?"

"No, but it is injured. Broken leg" He almost said it sympathetically. He then handed the animal to her, obviously dumping the problem on her. She held the animal as careful as she could. There was yet another rustle in the leaves, and then Lee, Konoha's Green Beast decided to burst through. The sudden quick movement frightened Tenten enough to try and hide the animal, but it was all ready far too late.

"NEJI! TENTEN! I FOUND GAI! HE'S TRYING TO BEAT KAKASHI AT A GAME OF BATTLESHIP! IT'S AN EVEN GAME! I THINK—" Lee stopped dead in his tracks. Astounded. His jaw hung open and for what seemed forever, he could not find the words that he was searching for. In the end, Tenten was caught red-handed. Even if she could somehow come up with an ingenious excuse, or even jutsu to use on Lee, it wouldn't matter. Lee saw it, and it was too late.

_Oh crap, _she thought again.

"CARENUT! OH MY POOR SQUIRREL FRIEND! WHAT DID SHE DO TO YOU?" Lee started to pour tears everywhere. He took the injured squirrel in his own hands and coaxed it, bawling. "DON'T WORRY! I WILL HAVE TSUNADE LOOK AT YOU!"

The bowl-headed boy's teammates just watched the poor teen cry over one of his squirrel friends. It was kinda creepy. The wind was already chilling her to the bone, but the next gust made her shiver. It was Neji who walked to Tenten, and put a hand on her shoulder, (which stopped the shivering) and whispered in her ear.

"Let's go, he's going to be at this awhile."

She whispered back. "But Neji, we can't just leave him here." She glanced at her still sobbing comrade, then rolled her eyes. As much as respected Lee, he was so… gah sometimes.

"Don't worry, he'll get over it soon enough, and knowing him, he would kill himself before that squirrel dies. Now we haven't got any training done today so let's go." His last comment was a little more tense.

It occurred to Tenten that Neji was trying pretty hard to get them alone, but she quixkly shoved the hypothesis aside. It was ridiculous to think that anyway. Just her girl showing. Tenten looked at her bawling teammate, then into the extremely pale lavender eyes of the other. She would feel bad about leaving him, but Neji was right, the squirrel would live, and so would Lee. Plus she knew that she really should make up for yesterday's training.

"Okay, let's go." Neji quietly zoomed off, and with one more look at Lee, she followed.

_He'll be fine..._

Lee cried some more, asking his teammates who weren't there for some act of comfort. When realized it was just him, he got up, carefully carrying the animal.

"DON'T WORRY CARENUT! GAI-SENSEI WILL HELP US!" Was his last shout before he dashed away in the opposite direction of Neji and Tenten.

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YESH! Okay, so you want chapter three now, right? Well hold your horses. I redid one and two, and my slow editing skills force me to be in the middle of three. I'm on my way though! Never fear! Thank you so much for reading, and please review. Reviews really make me eager to get off may butt and get to work. )

-Nejiandtenten


	3. Lee and His Day Off

Disclaimer: Again... I don't own Naruto

Author's Note: Schweet. Now we get to see Lee and his coolness. I know I have Lee portrayed as a nut, but truth is, I really like Lee. He's a cool nut. I just like parodying his nature a little bit. : P

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Cold Days

Lee hated when his team had a day off. It took away all that precious training time that Lee loved so much, and the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha (That was Lee, if you didn't know. He has many titles like that) needed as much training as he could in order to beat Neji. Normally, Lee would spend time with Gai on days off, but Gai has seemed so busy with Kakashi lately that whenever the bowl-headed taijutsu user tried to speak to him, it was if Lee were speaking directly to a wall. Lee understood though. Kakashi is to Gai-sensei, as what Neji is to Lee. Right? So Lee just let the two of them go at it, while Lee decided to do something more productive with his time. What other way of productivity are there, than announcing love to a certain pink-headed kunoichi.

Lee walked through the village towards Ino's flower shop, wondering what he could buy for her, and what his future girlfriend (he called her that in his mind) would like to have. Lee had no idea. Girls just worked differently. He knew that if it were Tenten, he'd just get her a kunai like last Christmas, but this was Sakura. The girl of his dreams. When you're in a situation like that, you have no idea what to get that person.

_But I HAVE to make her fall in love with me..._

Maybe chocolate was the way to go, he wasn't sure.

_Both._

He was particularly satisfied with his descision, and approached the flower shop with a small smile. The green beast walked, blending with all the other greens and shouted "I WANT TWO OF EVERY TYPES OF FLOWERS IN THIS SHOP PLEASE!"

There were only couple people inside the shop at the time, but the look of utter disbelief that someone was capable of waltzing into a flower shop and screaming that was carved all over their faces. Eyes wide, mouths open, they quickly forgot why they had gone inside the shop in the first place, and made a quick excuse to get the hell outta there. They must have thought Lee was trying to pull some kind of off, farfetched robbery.

The blonde struggled behind the counter was instantly startled by the noise, almost falling where she stood, her foot seeming to be caught on air. She steadied herself, only to see some of her mother's customers leave the shop quickly. She looked a bit huffy. And who wouldn't? Meanwhile, Lee picked out two of every flower in the shop, and placed them on the counter.

Ino looked a little irrated at the boy opposite to her, who gave her that 'Nice Guy' pose. "Lee...that's going to be a lot of money... are you sure you can afford it?"

Luckily, Lee used ultimate ninja skill of thinking ahead and brining every cent he had. He placed a big bag of Ryo on the counter, and money spilled out as well as coins. Ino sighed heavily, as now she had a mess to clean up.

"I'm sure I can afford it! ANYTHING FOR SAKURA!" He clenched a fist.

"...Even if you can," she was agitated by the shouting. "How are you going to get all of these to Sakura?"

This was something Lee never thought about, but he was too desperate to let that get in the way. His eyes seemed to light up as he determined a solution.

"I will Have them delivered of course!" A man outside peeped his head through to see what was so noisy. Ino felt terribly embarrassed, and really just wanted him gone.

"Lee! I will do as you say! But if you turn around and leave the shop right now, I will cut the price in half, but you have to GO!" At that Lee smiled.

"Thank you Ino!" With that, Lee casually paid her, turned around in a single pivot-like motion, and walked right on out. It seemed with all the ruckus, some apparently reported that the store was, in fact, being robbed. Some shinobi stood outside at the ready, prepared to take on a common crook, but upon seeing the green-clad warrior step out, everyone simultaneously let out a groan and left the scene. The genin had no idea what was going, on, and obliviously made his way towards the candy store.

Awhile later, chocolate in hand, and expecting the flower deliverer to drop them off at Sakura's any time now, Lee walked to her house. Along the way, he practiced what it was that he was going to say (or, rather; scream) to her. When he got there he saw something pink in her window duck down. _Strange...Oh well._ He knocked on the door and waited for an answer. There was no answer, so he knocked again.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited a little bit more.

Rock Lee had stood there knocking at her door and waiting for her to answer for two and a half hours. He didn't understand why she wasn't answering the door? The thought just hit him that maybe she was out, or couldn't hear his knocking. He persisted and began to bang on the door.

_Well at least it's cold...The chocolate won't melt like last time,_ He thought happily and smiled.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited a bit more.

Footsteps behind him. "SAKURA!" He whirled around, only stopping to see Chouji and Shikamaru with a load of flowers. There were so many flowers, that not only were they carrying some, but they had lugged over two whole carts of bright red, yellow, green, lime-green, pink, purple, lavender, and multi-colored flowers. It was like a rainbow got sick, and threw up all over them and their carts.

"Are these yours?" Shikamaru looked bored, as her regularly did. "Hurry up and take them, I have things to do."

At this Chouji looked curious. That was something that he had never heard Shikamaru say. He looked at his friend, chubby fingers dropping a dandelion. "Like what?"

"...like being lazy..."

"Oh..."

"…."

"…."

"…."

"HEY YOU GUYS! WHY ARE YOU DELIVERING THE FLOWERS?" Lee decided to break the silence.

"Lee," Shikamaru winced" "you're way too noisy, man. How troublesome."

"Ino made us do it." Chouji answered the question.

"The crazy blonde..." Shikamaru mumbled.

With this, Lee practically sprung into the air as he shouted, "THEY ARE FOR SAURA! I WILL MAKE HER FALL IN LOVE WITH ME!" He was so determined on getting Sakura to get to like him. And when Lee got determined on something, he usually never stopped fighting for the thing he wanted.

Shikamaru was getting irritated and noticed someone duck down in Sakura's house. Hde couldn't make anything out, other than large green eyes.

"Just tell us where you want them. It's freezing out here, and I wanna go home." Shikamaru slurred, and Chouji nodded in agreement.

"YOU CAN WAIT WITH ME UNTIL SAKURA OPENS THE DOOR!"

Shikamaru had the flowers dumped on the floor once the words "wait here with me" emptied Lee's mouth. He was all ready walking away, holding his back with his right hand, as he does, with the other hand in his pocket. It was cold, but perhaps he would lay in the sun if he could find some, and look at the clouds.

"Let's go Chouji."

With that, Shikamru walked away and was too far to talk to, Chouji dropped his bundle and followed him while he opened a big bag of chips and started to gulf them down. Lee was left picking up the flowers and arranging them in what he thought to be cute orders. He would offer them once she opened the door, and since she could possibly open the door at any moment, he began to arrange them faster.

Then he got a great idea. A wonderful idea. A perfect idea. Lee got a wonderful perfect idea, and knew, that she would instantly fall in love with him once he followed through.

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And that was chapter three. The new chapter four is on it's way! Never fear! It will base on NEJI! Um. Please review! Even if it's a one word review, it's mucho appreciated! Thanks.

-Nejiandtentrn


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